Page 69 of A Debt of Darkness

“Ivy.”

“What… are… you?”

I arch an eyebrow and she draws another stuttered breath.

“You don’t eat, you don’t sleep. Not much. You’re strong, too strong. Ryan too. And Matt. You look like that,” she says, pointing her shaking fingers at me. “But you go outside…”

“When you’ve been around for a few centuries, the light stops bothering you.”

Her mouth forms a small but perfect circle and she nods.

Her eyes narrow and I’m losing her. She’s pulling away, retreating from me as her fear takes hold. I can’t risk losing her. I can’t bear the thought of being without her.

“Please, Ivy. Don’t do this.”

“Do what, Henry?”

I lean forward and she flinches. “Pull away from me. You’re my wife, Ivy. I adore you. I need you. Don’t hide from me.”

Her grip loosens and panic takes hold of me until she runs her hand down my chest.

“Like you hid from me?”

Fuck.

She drives a stake through my heart and I’m broken.

With five little words, she’s wounded me more than anyone else in all the centuries I’ve lived. Through all the pain of everything I’ve borne and witnessed, I’ve never endured this agony—and I’d bear it a thousand times over to make it right. With her. For her.

“I was trying to protect you. From getting hurt. By me. By this. At least that’s how it started and then I couldn’t risk losing you. You’re everything. Every-fucking-thing to me.”

She stares at me, emotionless.

“Why me?”

“Occasionally, we’re granted a soul to complete ours. It’s rare for vampires. Exceptionally rare, lea. You’re not my soulmate. You’re the missing piece of my soul. You’re the part of me I lack, the part I can’t be whole without—as I am to you. It’s why you’re drawn to me. It’s the pull you think is simple attraction. It’s more, so much more than that, and I…” I stare at her and take the leap of faith she took weeks ago. “I would give everything—anything—for you, Ivy. You’ve got to know. Tell me you know that?”

Ivy meets my gaze and the color of her irises changes as pupils dilate. She’s reached a decision and there’s only one way forward now she’s made her choice. She’s chosen her path and it will be as hard or easy as she decides it needs to be.

“I know. I’ve always known. In a way.”

Her words are ambiguous but they’re certain. Sure. As clear as a bell in the chaos of our emotions. My heart’s been dead for a thousand years, but it’s pounding in my chest, beating for her, to her tune. She’s given me a rare and beautiful gift, and her acceptance of who and what I am is more precious than any possession.

Her hand lifts off my chest and she holds it millimeters away from my face. It’s agony. It’s excruciating. It’s unbearable and yet I hold, certain one movement from me will destroy us.

This is my test and I’m damn well going to pass it.

“This hurts more than when you slapped me.”

“You were being an asshole.”

“Some would say I still am.” I pause. “Being an asshole.”

A hint of a smile emerges at the corner of her perfect mouth. Ivy sighs and the girl who holds the power to destroy me in a single heartbeat does the most remarkable, surprising thing I’ve ever seen—she blinks and runs her fingertips down my face, offering me redemption and letting me make her my home.

20

A WHISPER IN A STORM